Half Past Noon

Also, they dress like homeschoolers. Not that either is a bad thing. I’m just making an objective, neutral, empirical observation.

Not too brag, everyone, but this is the view I had yesterday afternoon:

How do you like me now?

I haven’t found much to congratulate The National Review about in recent years. Now I have. In honor of baseball’s opening day, NRO assembled a group of 30 distinguished writers and policy wonks (one for each MLB team) to explain their love for their hometown team. This is American localism at its best.

I dub this, “Teamwork.” (HT: Canucks Hockey Blog)

I’ve wanted to state this hope for a while, but I’ve refrained for lack of a good quote to back me up. Now I have one.

Why will we be given new bodies [in the resurrection]? According to the early Christians, the purpose of this new body will be to rule wisely over God’s new world. Forget those images about lounging around playing harps. There will be work to do and we shall relish doing it. All the skills and talents we have put to God’s service in this present life—and perhaps too the interests and likings we gave up because they conflicted with our vocation—will be enhanced and ennobled and given back to us to be exercised in his glory.
– N.T. Wright, Surprised by Hope, page 161.

Of course, this is by no means conclusive. But if Wright is correct—if the new heavens and new earth will be a fulfillment of the current heavens and earth—then it is possible that I will one day play hockey with a resurrected body.

And I don’t think it’s a bad thing to hope for, either. Don’t you baseballers dream of perfect fields in heaven?

… when you see signs like this.

Tonight, Michael Buble is providing color commentary the Canucks & Blackhawks game on Team 1040 (radio home of the Vancouver Canucks—accessible here). Yes, you read that right.

Kinda weird, but I’m going to enjoy it. It is, after all, the first time I’ve been able to listen to a game all the way through in quite some time, and if my Canucks can pull out a win, I own bragging rights over Davey tomorrow.

(Of course, if they lose …)

Last week, Davey alerted me to a blog post by Rod Dreher about a small, Christian basketball team from The Covenant School (an ACCS affiliate, incidentally) that was apologizing for a blowout victory (100 – 0). According to Dreher, the school’s official apology, and news articles, the winning team had every right to embarrassed:

A parent who attended the game told The Associated Press that Covenant continued to make 3-pointers – even in the fourth quarter. She praised the Covenant players but said spectators and an assistant coach were cheering wildly as their team edged closer to 100 points.

Headmaster Kyle Queal, embarrassed by all this, applied to forfeit the game and issued a statement in which he called the game “a victory without honor.” (Oddly enough, this statement seems to have disappeared from their website.)

Dreher turned this piece into an meditation on how our culture as a whole is far too concerned with winning. Since I had recently written about a similar incident, Davey and I entered into a good-natured debate about whether or not such a score was Christlike. I argued that was, while Davey wondered the opposite.

But another side of the story has appeared from the winning coach, Micah Grimes (who has subsequently been fired). His statement that is well worth reading. He describes the game and his actions this way:

The game started like any other high school basketball game across the nation. The teams warm-up, coaches talk, the ball is tipped, and then the play begins. We started the game off with a full-court press. After 3 minutes into play, we had already reached a 25-0 lead. Like any rational thinking coach would do, I immediately stopped the full-court press, dropped into a 2-3 zone defense, and started subbing in my 3 bench players. This strategy continued for the rest of the game and allowed the Dallas Academy players to get the ball up the court for a chance to score. The second half started with a score of 59-0. Seeing that we would win by too wide of a margin, running down the clock was the only logical course of action left. Contrary to the articles, there were only a total of four 3-point baskets made; three in the first quarter, and only one in the third quarter. I continued to sub in bench players, play zone defense, and run the clock for the rest of the game. We played fair and honorably within the rules and in the presence of the parents, coaches, and athletic directors for both Covenant School and Dallas Academy.

It seems that the real problem wasn’t bad sportsmanship, but rather, embarrassment. (What’s more, according to the National Post, Dallas Academy’s athletics department didn’t support the forfeit of the game.)

Many things could be said. Many questions could be asked. If you’re not playing a game to win, why are you playing at all? How many points would Jesus win by? What was the winning team expected to do—sit around on the court and wait for the other team to catch up?

If my daughter was on that team, I would be applauding her and her coach. Life is full of situations where you end up on the winning side of a blow-out (so to speak). Do you really want to teach your kids that they should be embarrassed and ashamed of such things? This game offered these girls a huge lesson: how to win against a really really really bad team with grace and honor. Which, if Coach Grimes’ account is true, they did. Too bad the lesson was ripped away from them.

It’s opening day. My bright spot in all the inauguration fuss.